In an effort to enhance its OpenView e-services management software portfolio, Hewlett-Packard Co. of Palo Alto, Calif., acquired Torrance, Calif.-based Trinagy Inc. last month.
According to Xing Zeng, software category marketing manager at Hewlett-Packard (Canada) Ltd., Trinagy’s network performance management software will be added to HP’s OpenView network management software. Network performance management is something that is lacking in OpenView and the addition of the capability will be of interest to HP’s service provider customers, he said.
Prior to acquisition, HP has always used third-party software vendors to give its customers the ability to use performance management software, said Debra Curtis, research director for network and systems management at Stamford, Conn.-based Gartner Inc.
“HP has not invested heavily in long-term network reporting management,” Curtis said. Now that HP is focusing on the service provider market, she said it is important that the company is able to provide network performance reporting capabilities to its customers.
Zeng said HP had the opportunity to acquire the NetMetrix performance management product from HP spin-off Agilent Technologies Inc. of Palo Alto, Calif., but decided against purchasing the Agilent product in favour of acquiring Trinagy.
“Its product is not as good as the technology from Trinagy because [it’s] a combination of software and hardware,” Zeng said. Trinagy’s product is purely software.
According to Curtis, while Trinagy isn’t the market leader in network performance management and reporting, it probably sits in the number three spot.
“Trinagy has always been very well-known for scalable architecture,” she said. Aside from its good reputation in performance management, its service provider focus also fit well into HP’s strategy, she said.
Currently, Trinagy offers two products: TREND and ReportPack. According to the company, TREND is an intelligent performance management product designed for service providers and large corporations that provides capabilities such as performance analysis, network troubleshooting and resource optimization. It was built on a distributed open architecture. ReportPacks are pre-packaged, drop-in applications that can provide comprehensive reports on various aspects of the network.
Trinagy’s operations will be integrated into the HP OpenView Business Unit and full integration of Trinagy’s software is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2002.
“The acquisition of Trinagy fit with our direction very well,” Zeng said. He added that the acquisition of Trinagy is part of an ongoing strategy to enhance OpenView. Future acquisitions are possible, but Zeng could not comment on what companies or products might eventually be added to the HP family.
Hewlett-Packard is on the Web at www.hp.com. Trinagy can be found at www.trinagy.com.
